Interviews during 2018-2020: on Foreign Policy
Joe Sestak:
Procurement of Chinese tech endangers national security
Countering geopolitical threats from China should be done in concert with America's allies, advised Sestak. "We need our allies. It's not just us with China. The greatest power we have is the ability to lead people around our values and how we
want the rules to be done." America's procurement of certain technologies from China with military applications undermines national security, assessed Sestak. "Or if you own an Android phone, everything you're talking on is going back to China."
Source: Breitbart.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 16, 2019
Joe Sestak:
Rejoin Iran deal; strengthen trade with allies
Sestak calls for re-joining the Iranian nuclear deal, modernizing our military by focusing on cyberspace capabilities, and supporting our military servicemembers (including LGBTQ individuals). Sestak also advocates for "reestablishing" ties and
trade with allies "because countries that trade and do business with each other are much less likely to fight wars."
Source: Townhall.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Jul 9, 2019
Joe Sestak:
Building liberal world order is what makes America First
Sestak, who graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1974 and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard, said in a campaign video released Sunday that "America's retreat from the world today" is "dangerous and
damaging to our American Dream." He said that "building the liberal world order based upon the rules of individual and human rights, open and fair markets, fair and just governments" is "what really makes 'America First.' "
Source: USA Today on 2020 Democratic primary
Jun 23, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard:
Met with Syrian president; for "extreme vetting" of Syrians
Key criticisms of Gabbard:- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting: In what her office called a "fact-finding" mission, Gabbard made a secret trip to Syria in Jan.2017 and met with Assad. There are questions about the Arab American organization
that funded the trip. She has also met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
- "Extreme vetting" vote: She voted with congressional Republicans on an Obama-era bill that would place "extreme vetting" measures on Iraqi and Syrian refugees.
Source: Axios.com on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 22, 2019
Marianne Williamson:
Support Israeli security & Palestinian human rights
I believe that the United States must have an absolute simultaneous and equal support of the legitimate security concerns of Israel and the human rights and dignities and economic opportunities of the Palestinian people.
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority will know that you say is going to sway me from my commitment to the legitimate security of
Israel, and Israeli leaders similarly will know nothing is going to sway me from my commitment to the human rights and the dignity of the Palestinian people.
It's been since Jimmy Carter that we've had a U.S. president to say flat out those settlements are illegal. In me, you would have a president who says those settlements are illegal.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
Marianne Williamson:
Return moral principles to our foreign policy
I want the moral leadership of our State Department back. When you're willing to -- for the sake of a $100 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, go along with support for a genocidal war that we know has starved tens of thousands of Yemenis, when
Mike Pompeo says, "well, sometimes you can have strategic partnerships with people who do not share your values," no, you can't. It means you have sacrificed your values. I want the moral principles that should be central to American foreign policy back.
Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 14, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Supports Israel; situation more complex than seen in media
I think there's a risk that Israel could come to be regarded as a partisan issue, and I think that would be really unfortunate. One of the first things you realize when you get on the ground is this is not a left versus right issue.
We met a lot of people from the Israeli left who have complicated and nuanced views of what is going on [including the] relationship with Iran. Unfortunately, these things are reduced into a black and white picture sometimes in the American media.
Source: Common Dreams e-zine on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 3, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Help refugee asylum seekers at home in Northern Triangle
O'Rourke argued that to solve America's problems at the border, America's leaders must "help people in Central America where they are." In so doing, he began laying a foundation to effectively rebut Donald Trump on his signature issue: immigration.
O'Rourke's competitors are right to demand a fairer & more humane system for evaluating asylum claims. But an improved asylum system won't reduce the number of people fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador--Central America's "Northern
Triangle." To the contrary, the better chance migrants have of gaining asylum, the more likely they are to seek it.
By addressing the roots of the migration problem, O'Rourke's proposal evades Trump's trap. The migrant "caravans" that Trump demonizes
hail from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where a brutal fight between organized-crime cartels has driven violence to levels that are unprecedented outside a war zone. American aid can reduce this violence and the migration it creates.
Source: The Atlantic Magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Apr 1, 2019
Mike Gravel:
Bring critique of American imperialism to Democratic primary
There's a new must-follow Twitter account for those following the 2020 presidential race, and the man behind it is an 88-year-old man from Alaska who served in the
U.S. Senate in the 1970s, ran for president in 2008, and is talking about running again in 2020.Mike Gravel, who served two terms as a Democratic senator from Alaska between 1969 and 1981, launched the
Twitter account Tuesday night with a tweet stating "#Gravel2020."
"I am considering running in the 2020 Democratic primary," the second tweet said. "The goal will not be to win, but to bring a critique of
American imperialism to the Democratic debate stage. The website (http://mikegravel.org) is under construction. Official announcement will be in the coming days."
Source: Inquisitr.com blog on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 20, 2019
Mike Gravel:
1971: end Vietnam involvement; 2008: end Mideast involvement
In the 2008 debates, Gravel delivered a searing indictment of the vast majority of his fellow candidates for their support of the Iraq war and their continued commitment to American interventionism in the Middle East. Thanks to his Senate background,
Gravel succeeded in getting into early debates where he served as a bit of an antiwar gadfly. His hostility to U.S. interventionism, however, dated back to a much earlier moment of national notoriety, in 1971, when Gravel "entered 4,000 pages of the
Pentagon Papers into the congressional record just before the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an injunction on publishing them in the press." The papers, a collection of internal DoD memos and other materials documenting the planning and execution of the
Vietnam War, offered a searing indictment of U.S. foreign policy, which is why the Nixon administration battled unsuccessfully to keep them secret.
Source: New York Magazine on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 20, 2019
Joe Biden:
Opposition to European alliances like NATO is dumb
Biden did not mince words when discussing the Trump administration's foreign policy, specifically criticizing the administration's skepticism towards the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Both of those, for the first time in
70 years, are under attack," Biden said, labeling the Trump administration's opposition to the two organizations as "the dumbest thing in the world."
Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian on 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls
Feb 19, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Pay attention to assessments of intelligence agencies
Q: Would you meet with Kim Jong-un?A: I think it would make more sense to have that happen in a framework of concrete achievements.
You don't just get to have a meeting, declare the nuclear threat to be over, then wind up being embarrassed and contradicted by your own intelligence chiefs.
As a military officer serving overseas, I was part of the intelligence community. And there is not a more reality-based group of people in this country.
You actually have to understand and legitimize and take seriously their assessments before you have any business having a one-on-one with the leader of a hostile foreign power like North Korea.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interviews for 2020 Democratic primary
Feb 3, 2019
Julian Castro:
Strengthen our relationship with allies to keep us safe
Today the greatest threat to our national security is the fact that this president is damaging the relationships that we've had at place in the post-World War II era, whether it's
NATO or other alliances with individual countries, that have kept us safer. The first thing that I would do if I were president, with regard to our relationships around the world, is to strengthen them. Because those alliances have helped keep us safe.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interviews for 2020 Democratic primary
Jan 6, 2019
Joe Biden:
$750M to Central America to address root cause of migration
[Pres. Obama and I] knew the cost of investing in a secure and prosperous Central America was modest compared with the cost of allowing violence and poverty to fester. Following intensive negotiations between the Obama administration and the Northern
Triangle presidents, Congress provided $750 million in 2016 to fund a whole-of-government effort to effect deep and lasting change in Central America. Because Central American governments had long been perceived--with good reason--as corrupt, inept and
incapable of delivering basic services to their citizens, I supported Congress in tying the aid package to concrete commitments by regional governments to clean up their police, increase tax collection, fight corruption and create the opportunities
necessary to convince would-be migrants to remain in their countries.We also implemented new programs to help those in immediate danger by allowing them to apply for asylum. By the end of the Obama administration, we began to see results.
Source: Joe Biden OpEd in Washington Post (2020 Democratic primary)
Jun 25, 2018
Joe Biden:
Revive Alliance for Prosperity with Central America
There is still time to build on the policy that emerged from the last major migration crisis in 2014--a policy modeled in part on the successful, bipartisan approach to Plan Colombia. When the vice president travels this week to Guatemala, the president
should send him with a mandate to revive the intense diplomatic and aid efforts that gave rise to the Alliance for Prosperity, and opened a window of hope for the most besieged countries in our hemisphere.We can both strengthen U.S. border security
and treat migrants arriving from Central America with dignity and decency instead of cruelty and callousness. But their overwhelming desire to flee their countries and risk everything to enter the United States shows that their governments are
still failing them. This migration will only continue unless we keep up the pressure and provide the support to make the Northern Triangle of Central America a prosperous and secure place to call home.
Source: Joe Biden OpEd in Washington Post (2020 Democratic primary)
Jun 25, 2018
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021